Lender Sues Citigroup Over Business Name

City Financial, a mortgage lender based in Orange, filed a trademark infringement suit against banking giant Citigroup Inc., alleging that Citigroup is confusing people with the name of its new CitiFinancial Credit Co. business. City Financial seeks to block Citigroup from using the CitiFinancial name, and City Financial projects it could suffer damages of as much as $125 million from what it calls unfair competition and false advertising. City Financial said it registered the name in 1992 and that in February of this year, Citigroup contacted it asking for consent to use the name CitiFinancial and that City Financial refused. Citigroup did not immediately comment on the suit.